Squier Classic Vibe 5 string Jazz. I'm surprised. Very surprised.

[leschirons]

Recently joined a band (second rehearsal tomorrow) and it's looking like they might want to take on a few pub gigs to just hone the set and performance so,..

 

Bought a pub cheapy for the usual reasons.

 

I picked up a Classic Vibe Jazz 5 locally. The guy had bought it 6 months previous so I wasn't expecting much with him moving it on that quickly but it still had all the plastic on it.

I've also got the original packaging with his name and address on. It stands me in £175 + new strings. 

 

Wow, that neck and fret board.  Frets perfectly finished, no sharp edges, love the gloss feel, in fact, it reminds me of the 5 string Elite I sold here a couple of years ago. Great sound through my Shuttle 6.0.

Plays like a dream with the LaBella low tension flats on.

The only down side is, it's on the heavy side but as their set list appears to be just 20 numbers, I won't be standing on a stage for 3 hours.  I think these things are only about £300 or so new. Can't believe it for the money.

Edited December 3 by leschirons

[Lozz196]

It’s amazing that such good instruments can be made for this amount, with the difference in quality between these and their big brothers not being as much as the price tag would suggest. Starter instruments when I began playing really weren’t up to much at all, whereas nowadays these could easily be first but kept hold of and gigged regularly instruments.

[Supernaut]

Squier CV and VM series have been around for a while now. For £300, you can buy a fantastic instrument off the shelf. 

[Owen]

We live in the golden age of luthiery. Not joking. 

[Marvin]

A fellow bass player I bump into at open mics and gigs has just bought Squier Sonic Precision. He usually plays a Japanese Fender Precision Lyte and also has a Warwick Corvette $$.

He told me the Sonic plays better, sounds better than the Fender and he can't remember why he bought the Warwick. 

[jonno1981]

Honestly the bang for buck in the £200-£400 range is unreal these days. 
You can get a genuinely decent instrument with no major or minor flaws for not much. It makes that stretch to spend more ever harder to justify. I don’t think I’m ever going to buy a mexi or us fender again. I can’t justify it.

[Bassybert]

On 04/12/2025 at 13:37, Owen said:

We live in the golden age of luthiery. Not joking. 

It’s not really created by a luthier when almost everything is CNC/machine made and assembled though is it?

 

I get what you’re saying though, the quality of lower end instruments is ridiculously good and seems to be getting better all the time. Not sure what it’s down to, competition or new manufacturing methods maybe but the cheaper end of the market has never been better. 

[fergs40]

On 04/12/2025 at 13:37, Owen said:

We live in the golden age of luthiery. Not joking. 

Well, we live in a golden age of consumerism and benefit from 200+ years of manufacturing expertise, that’s certainly true.
 

Sadly it’s wildly inequitable, not at all sustainable and will be the end of us but, hey!, why not enjoy it while it’s here.

 

Two hundred years ago we’d have been digging coal or weaving cloth and dead by 35.
 

Two hundred years hence -well, who knows, but it probably won’t involve a Squier jazz.

 

We only get one turn round the wheel, we don’t get to choose when it is, we make the best fist of it we can.

 

Right, enough empty philosophising - enjoy your bass!

Edited 7 hours ago by fergs40